We’re a group of four girls—all Girl Scouts!—who love to learn and
who earned the right to compete in the highest level of Science Olympiad (as a
part of the Austin homeschooling team) and (on our own) at Destination
Imagination. In our wildest dreams, we never imagined the opportunities we
would have at these two competitions! Girl Scouts gave us the confidence to try
everything we could. When we were asked to blog about our experiences, we
jumped at the chance to tell you about both events.

Science Olympiad

Our first adventure took us to the University of Wisconsin-Stout
in Menomonie, Wisconsin, where we competed at the National Science Olympiad.
Science Olympiad is an academic competition that consists of 23 events that
range from shooting bottle rockets high in the sky to learning about the
deepest trenches in the ocean. Our team was made up of 30 homeschooled students
from Travis and Williamson Counties.

Classes & Dorms

While we spent much of our time studying and taking tests, we had
a good amount of time to hang out and learn what college life is like. Getting
up at five in the morning to take a class across campus after sleeping in a
dorm all night was a taste of what our future holds. When we arrived at the
classroom at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, we were welcomed by a chemistry
professor who taught us about the chemical structure of those famous Wisconsin
cheese curds. Like Girl Scouts, Science Olympiad gives us opportunities to
think about our futures.

Commercial

One of our team members, Camilla, auditioned for an ACE Hardware
commercial. She chose the topic of inertia for her on-camera debut. With little
time to practice, she had to quickly learn how to do the experiment, talk her
audience through the concept of inertia, and remember to smile. Juggling all of
these roles was less daunting because she had taken the Toastmasters course for
Girl Scouts. When Camilla found out that she had won fifth place, she was very
proud that she had faced her fears and was thrilled to know that she had won
250 dollars for her team.

Competition

At last, competition day! With the sweet thought of victory in our
minds, we entered our different rooms in which we would be competing. Our
hearts thumped as we opened up the test booklets. As we looked down at
the pages we could see page upon page of black type containing the questions
that we would need to answer. After we finished and were exiting the room, we
realized that no matter what happened at the awards ceremony, we knew that we
had done our absolute best.

Work hard, play hard

To be proud of ourselves, we had to work extremely hard. It was
similar to the work we do to earn a Silver or Bronze Award. First, we decided what
we wanted to do, and we put our minds to it. At the end of the day, we were
very proud of ourselves. But working wasn’t all that we did. There was plenty
of time to enjoy a banquet/awards ceremony, the knick-knack trading party, and
even just playing outside with our friends!

Destination Imagination

From Menomonie to Knoxville, from cheese curds to barbeque, and
from serious science to crazy creativity, the week after Science Olympiad, we
traveled to the University of Tennessee for Destination Imagination.
Destination Imagination (DI) is a program in which teams of students
cooperatively and creatively solve problems. The DI challenges involve
improvisation, theater arts, writing, engineering, project management,
communication, innovation, teamwork, community service, and social
entrepreneurship—all skills we’ve learned through Girl Scout activities!

During the year, our team of four partnered with Austin Bat Cave,
a local nonprofit organization that hosts writing workshops for underserved
elementary and middle school students. We found that Austin Bat Cave did not
have a program for homeschoolers, so we created one and hosted our own writing
workshops to help.

To compete in DI, we wrote an eight-minute play to depict our work
with Austin Bat Cave, built our set and props, made costumes, and performed the
play at the Regional, State, and Global competitions! When we arrived at Global
Finals, we were amazed by how many people were there, by the learning
opportunities we had, and by the joy we felt being with our friends.

So Many People!

Lights flashed in red, blue, and green. The opening ceremony for
Destination Imagination started off with a bang! Or, rather, a parade. Teams
from all over the world marched through the fog at the entrances, as if they
were the home team for a sporting event. Pennsylvania followed Pakistan, and
then came Poland. Teams kept coming and coming until nobody in the stands
(including us!) could tell who was who. We were sitting across the aisle from
the teams from South Korea, and we could see teams from Qatar across the way.
We couldn’t believe that out of the 17,000 people who were there, we were four
of them.

What Opportunities!

Zero Gravity Simulator! Paper Airplane Aerodynamics! Survive on
Mars! These STEM exhibits in the packed convention center were among
the dozens that were available to DI participants throughout our time in
Knoxville. We stood at the entrance, staring, excited to get started. The next
day, we walked through the campus fitness center to get to our song writing
workshop—taught by an experienced Broadway songwriter!—and just one of many
classes offered. DI had tons of workshops, inventor booths, and try-out
stations. We got to work on everything from math puzzles to Mars rovers!

The global competition even had the largest duct-tape costume ball
in the world! We all went to the ball, dressed in our hand-made, duct-tape
costumes: a marionette, an Icelandic singer, Alice in Wonderland, and an
Anime character.

Camaraderie

“Good luck!” “Break a leg!” “You’re going to do great!” we
whispered to each other right before we performed. In the year we’ve been a
team, we have formed a bond of friendship, a deep feeling of camaraderie. We’ve
had some really great moments (1st place at
state!) and some not so good ones (watching our set’s stand almost break on the
eve of our last performance), but through it all, we’ve become masters at
working together.

Conclusion

We’ve gotten to experience so many things, even outside of these
competitions. We’ve met so many new friends and have had so much fun! Every
time we’ve competed, the values in the Girl Scout Law have helped us be more
confident. We had opportunities to do and learn so many things this year, and
we can’t wait to do it all again next year!

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Girl Scouts of Central Texas (GSCTX) is 32,000 members strong across 46 counties. Our mission is to build girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place. This blog tells the stories of our girls and the people who have impacted them on their journey.

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